Circumcision
Circumcision names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Circumcision an operation consisting in removing circularly the prepuce of infants
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an operation consisting in removing circularly the prepuce of infants. God commanded Abraham to use circumcision as a sign of his covenant; and in obedience to this order, the patriarch at 99 years of age was circumcised, as also his son Ishmael, and all the males of his household (Gen. (Gen. xvii: 10-12). God repeated the precept to Moses, and ordered that all who intended to partake of the Paschal sacrifice should receive circumcision, and that this rite should be performed on children on the eighth day after their birth (Ex. xii: 44). The Jews and all the other nations sprung from Abraham, as the Ishmaelites, the Arabians, etc., have always been very exact in observing this ceremony. At the present day it is an essential rite of the Mohammedan religion, and though not enjoined in the Koran, prevails wherever this religion is found. A similar operation is performed among the Egyptians, Arabians, and Persians, on the females. The Jews esteemed uncircumcision as a very great impurity; and the greatest offense they could receive was to be called uncircumcised. Paul frequently mentions the Gentiles under this term, not opprobriously (Rom. ii: this 26), but in opposition to the Jews, whom he names "the circumcised." The feast of circumcision is a festival observed in the Roman Catholic Church and in some other denominations, in commemoration of the circumcision of Jesus Christ. It is held on Jan. 1.
Circumcision an operation consisting in removing circularly the prepuce of infants
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an operation consisting in removing circularly the prepuce of infants. God commanded Abraham to use circumcision as a sign of his covenant; and in obedience to this order, the patriarch at 99 years of age was circumcised, as also his son Ishmael, and all the males of his household (Gen. xvii: 10-12). God repeated the precept to Moses, and ordered that all who intended to partake of the Paschal sacrifice should receive circumcision, and that this rite should be performed on children on the eighth day after their birth (Ex. xii: 44). The Jews and all the other nations sprung from Abraham, as the Ishmaelites, the Arabians, etc., have always been very exact in observing this ceremony. At the present day it is an essential rite of the Mohammedan religion, and though not enjoined in the Koran, prevails wherever this religion is found. A similar operation is performed among the Egyptians, Arabians, and Persians, on the females. The Jews esteemed uncircumcision as a very great impurity; and the greatest offense they could receive was to be called uncircumcised. Paul frequently mentions the Gentiles under this term, not opprobriously (Rom. ii: 26), but in opposition to the Jews, whom he names "the circumcised." The feast of circumcision is a festival observed in the Roman Catholic Church and in some other denominations, in commemoration of the circumcision of Jesus Christ. It is held on Jan. 1.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 the entry was essentially religious, treating circumcision as a covenant rite of Jews and Muslims; today it is also a mass medical procedure, performed on roughly a third of the world's males, and routine for a majority of newborn boys in the United States. Randomised trials in Africa led the WHO and UNAIDS in 2007 to recommend voluntary medical male circumcision as HIV prevention, on evidence that it cuts female-to-male transmission by about 60 per cent; tens of millions of operations have followed in eastern and southern Africa. The "similar operation" on females that Collier's mentions in a single flat sentence is now called female genital mutilation, condemned by the WHO and the subject of a 2012 UN General Assembly resolution urging its elimination. One small detail has also lapsed: the Roman Catholic Feast of the Circumcision on 1 January was renamed in the 1969 calendar reform as the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
Written for this edition, 2026.